It's the earliest stage of planet formation ever seen by scientists. The new planetary system is taking shape around HOPS-315, a baby star which is located 1,300 light years from Earth in the Orion Nebula. Experts say that the discovery could help better understand the beginnings of our own Solar System.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It’s an unprecedented snapshot of “time zero,” scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel.

Far beyond the eight familiar planets in our solar system, countless bizarre and extreme worlds await discovery — and some have already been found. Thanks to rapidly advancing telescope technology, astronomers have detected more than 5,

International astronomers have for the first time witnessed the birth of a planetary system beyond Earth's sun that could one day resemble our own.

"We found that hundreds of exoplanets are larger than they appear, and that shifts our understanding of exoplanets on a large scale," University of California, Irvine researcher and team leader Te Han said in a statement. "This means we may have actually found fewer Earth-like planets so far than we thought."

Ammonite was discovered using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, with follow-up confirmation from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Its orbit and size

Stars and planets are naturally associated with one another. While some planets have gone rogue and are drifting through space, the vast majority are in solar systems, where they're gravitationally bound and orbit their stars in predictable ways.

For the first time, astronomers have witnessed the very first solid particles forming around a baby sun-like star, HOPS-315, over 1,300 light-years away. Using Nasa’s James Webb Telescope and ALMA in Chile,